1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to a connector structure, particularly relates to an innovative tray-style memory card connector structure.
2. Description of the Background Art
With the rapid development of new technologies, storage media has been widely used in PCs, Digital Cameras, MP3 players, Digital Video Camcorders, and commercial devices. As digital technologies and market demand evolve, storage media products increasingly expand in capacity while decrease in size.
Currently, most memory card products available in the market, such as CompactFlash cards, Smart Media cards, Multimedia cards, Secure Digital cards, and Memory Sticks, are light, thin, short, and small. They have exceeded 64 MB in capacity. Due to their advantages in size and portability, they are favored by customers and are becoming a substitute for diskettes or hard disks. To access the information stored in those products, usually a card connector device is required.
Traditional card connector products are mainly categorized into internal ones and external ones. For internal ones, as shown in FIG. 1, to access the information stored in a memory card, the memory card has to be inserted into a PCMCIA adapter, which then is inserted in a digital device (i.e., PC). For external ones, as shown in FIG. 2, the memory card has to be inserted into an external card connector, which connects to a PC via an interface, and than read the information stored in the memory card. In above card connector structures, the slots are both exposed and easy to be damaged due to inclusion of foreign matters (e.g., dust). Furthermore, the notch on the slot impairs the integrity sense.
The traditional internal/external card connector products have not only above disadvantages but also some pending problems that are not mentioned in above description, such as:
1. Most card connector products are designed to work with a specific type of memory cards.
2. Whether the card connector products can be designed as a tray structure to embed the memory card in it to avoid inclusion of foreign matters?
3. Whether the card connector products can be adaptable to all types of memory cards while with minimized size to be more convenient and portable?
In consideration of above disadvantages and pending problems related with traditional card connector products, the inventor invents a tray-style memory card connector.
The main purpose of this invention is to provide a tray-style memory card connector structure, which employs a tray-style main body to embed the memory card in it to avoid inclusion of foreign matters and consummate the integral structure.
To attain above purpose, the invention provides a tray-style memory card connector comprising of a base and a main body than can slide smoothly on the base. The base has a plug structure on one end, which has a guide groove on each side. There is a retracting structure on the base, and when it is pressed down, the main body will separate from the base. There is a container on the said main body to contain a memory card. At each side of the container there is a groove. A slide rail is mounted between the groove and the guide groove. In this way, the main body can slide smoothly on the base.
Another purpose of this invention is to provide an adaptable memory card connector structure, the container of which can host different types of memory cards (e.g., CompactFlash cards, Smart Media cards, Multimedia cards, Secure Digital cards, Memory Sticks, and other PC cards), eliminating the disadvantage of complex structure, large size, and high cost in traditional memory card connectors that utilize two or more slots to support multi types of memory cards.
The structure, principle, functions, and efficacy of this invention is detailed further in the following illustrations and descriptions.